Originations

A new national refinancing program unveiled by President Obama earlier in the week will rely on the Federal Housing Administration to refinance private and GSE mortgages, according to a report from Federal Financial Analytics in Washington.

Citigroup Inc. will no longer purchase "medium or high-risk" loans that could result in buyback requests from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, in the bank's latest effort to improve the quality of mortgages it buys from correspondent lenders, according to an internal memo obtained by American Banker.

The value at risk metric employed by every major banking institution offered the appearance of safety until taxpayer bailouts were the only option to save the financial system. Today, regulators are examining historical factors to determine what defines a "safe" mortgage in order to calculate capital adequacy and risk retention requirements.

New York Community Bancorp Inc., Westbury, N.Y. said its fourth quarter profits of $118 million were in part fueled by $25 million in income from mortgage banking, driven by refinancing activity during the period. For the full year, NYCB's net income was $496 million, up from 2010's $560,000.

New home sales fell 6.5% in 2011, but many economists are forecasting that home buying will rise this year.

Old Republic International Corp.'s mortgage guaranty business lost $163 million for the fourth quarter and $678 million for the year, 48% worse and 160% worse than the same periods one year ago, as claims costs intensified throughout the year.

Positive housing data from the end of 2011 nudged the average weekly rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage back upward by 10 basis points to 3.98% in Freddie Mac's primary market survey, reversing a three-week trend of record-setting lows.

If there is one thing that has been lacking over the years for many mortgage originators, it is customer loyalty. And it is a two-way street—both sides have tended to treat the transaction as a one-off deal.

President Obama Tuesday night made a few specific references to the mortgage industry in his State of the Union speech, but never did he once use the phrase "loan broker" or try to paint these third-part salesmen as the evildoers of the housing crisis (as he has in the past.)

The Villages, an active-adult property west of Orlando, was the country's best selling master planned community in 2012, according to data collected by John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

Astoria Federal Financial Corp., one of the nation's largest thrifts, posted a net profit of $11.8 million in the fourth quarter, almost half of what it earned in the same period in 2010.

A major hurdle for the mortgage industry in 2011 that may continue to pose a significant risk this year is ineffective quality control. Interthinx identified two defects in the outsourced quality control programs of lenders that affected residential mortgage loan files—missing documentation and inaccurate information.

California's home builders suffered through their third lowest year on record in 2011. The only thing that kept the year from being worse was the apartment sector, which rose sharply.

The Federal Reserve will not sell any of its massive holdings of agency MBS and Treasuries until 2015 as it strives to keep interest rates low, central bank officials said Wednesday afternoon.

Delinquencies on mortgages controlled by Freddie Mac rose to 3.58% in December, the highest reading in nine months for the GSE, and a sign that it likely will continue to post operating losses in the immediate quarters ahead.

Home prices rebounded in November with values falling in only one of the nine regions tracked by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Radian Group Inc., Philadelphia, has entered into a series of transactions with Assured Guaranty Ltd., Hamilton, Bermuda, which will eventually add $100 million to its mortgage insurance subsidiary's statutory capital.

Economists at the National Association of Realtors are forecasting an almost 7% increase in existing home sales in 2012, following a 2% improvement last year.

GNMA chief Ted Tozer has been trying in vain to get more mortgage firms to issue MBS, but Wells Fargo & Co. continues to increase its grip on the government market.

It makes your head swim doesn't it? In 2011 alone, the mortgage industry averaged 22 mortgage rule changes per month according to www.MortgageCurrentcy.com - and that was just for loan originators. It seems like every day, there's a new social media platform. Phone apps. Everyone and his brother and sister are talking about new ways to use them in your mortgage practice.